Veepstakes begin as Nikki Haley takes the GOP spotlight

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is about to fuel a week’s worth of speculation that the GOP is positioning her as a potential vice presidential pick.

On Wednesday, one night after delivering the Republican response to the State of the Union address, Haley will speak to GOP leaders gathered for the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting, according to two sources familiar with her schedule. The private event will be held aboard the USS Yorktown in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, near the RNC’s annual meeting in Charleston.

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The next day, just before Republican presidential hopefuls gather for a debate, Haley is expected to have a private meeting with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, according to a source familiar with her plans.

All this comes on the back of a strong year that saw her prospects in the veepstakes improve as Haley signed off on legislation removing the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds in Columbia and oversaw a state battered by a church massacre and a massive flood. Indeed, the chatter about Haley’s national prospects has only increased.

In August, at the RNC summer meeting in Cleveland, Haley was invited to be its luncheon headliner. In December, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan asked Haley to deliver the GOP’s State of the Union response, and those close to Haley say she has spent the past several weeks drafting the speech.

In recent months, the South Carolina governor has fostered a close relationship with Christie, a fellow governor, as well as with two other Republican White House hopefuls, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush.

Over the course of the primary campaign, she has been exchanging text messages with all three candidates. With Bush, for example, she has talked about a variety of topics, including anti-domestic violence initiatives and her decision to remove the Confederate flag.

At times, the conversations can be lighthearted. After it was announced that she would give the State of the Union response, she received a text message from Rubio, who in 2013 was widely mocked for interrupting his speech to take a sip of water.